According to multiple baseball sources, at least one team has been in communication with Mike Napoli’s representatives regarding the free agent infielder’s status since negotiations with the Red Sox hit a snag.

That’s from Rob Bradford of WEEI.

Whatever. It strikes me as odd that the Red Sox are playing hardball with Napoli on the hip issue here. If they’re not careful he’ll go back to Toronto or on to New York or something and beat their brains out 19 times a season.

My friend I agree with you. I can’t see the Yankees being interested in him for anything more then a 1 year deal. But on a 1 year deal as purely a DH and occasionly spelling Tex at first base it would be interesting to see him in Yankee Pinstripes. But it ain’t gonna happen, or could it?

The part where they “leak out” interest in LaRoche. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with leveraging his injury against their original contract because he isn’t the player they thought they were getting. Now playing out the renegotiations through media leaks is another pathetic Red Sox thing. And they don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt after the way every player who leaves them recently gets slammed by “anonymous sources” on their way out the door.

bigleagues - Dec 27, 2012 at 8:15 PM

Calling from planet IRL . . . teams strategically leaking to the media is as old as Free Agency itself. Players do it to.

It has always been the case, so then why is it suddenly unprofessional for the Red Sox to do it?

It’s time for both parties to shit or get off the pot and I’m sure the Red Sox felt they needed to push this along.

What would be unprofessional is if the Red Sox up and signed LaRoche without notifying Napoli that they were ending negotiations.

As I said the Red Sox with their recent history do not deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to shady media leaks. And there was no reason for them to leak anything publicly because Napoli’s side was negotiating still and hadn’t said anything publicly about it. Basically they are trying to make Napoli the bad guy here. They can play the LaRoche card to Napoli and his agent without telling anyone outside the negotiations. They seem to do the opposite though.

First of all, as it pertains to the Red Sox ‘leaking’ anything . . . we are speaking in hypotheticals aren’t we? The idea that the Red Sox leaked a report that they are speaking with Adam LaRoche is supposition on Craig’s part.

The source of the leak could very well be LaRoche’s camp in an effort to stir negotiations with the Nationals.

OR the source of the leak could be Napoli’s camp in an effort to let the Sox know that they won’t idly sit by.

We don’t know. Rosenthal credits “Major League” sources. That could be ANYONE associated with major league baseball.

You, Craig or anyone who automatically assumes that the Red Sox is The Source of the report are using the same principle that the PED police apply – guilt by association.

And all that said, before we consider that strategically leaking selected info from a negotiation is something that EVERYONE does. Not to embarrass. Not to shun, but for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is to judge public sentiment.

bigleagues - Dec 28, 2012 at 12:01 PM

cur68, re: IRL – thank you for translating :p

I’m not saying you need it, but in general I suggest folks familiarize themselves with the UrbanDictionary.

I can blast the Mets with the best of them, but what have they done lately that’s unprofessional? Dickey as much as admitted the story about him at the holiday party was a media creation. Remember, the media in NY and Boston is pure scum. They fabricate controversy to sell papers and generate clicks. Sure the Wilpons are dirtbags, but the Mets front office is fairly professional.

“Napoli, Red Sox agree to terms”. Queue Red Sox haters how Napoli is a waste and a bum.
“Napoli could end up in Toronto or NY”, queue retards: hey?? Napoli isn’t such a bad idea, could it happen? Would it happen? He’d destroy the sox!!
Seriously,…biggest hypocrites.

As the father of a boy with Down syndrome, and a Red Sox fan, I’d appreciate you trying not to use the word “retard” in this way. There are lots of other, less hateful, ways to refer to people of low intelligence: Fools, idiots, or, as I like to use, Yankee fans.

<blockquote cite="Whatever. It strikes me as odd that the Red Sox are playing hardball with Napoli on the hip issue here. If they’re not careful he’ll go back to Toronto or on to New York or something and beat their brains out 19 times a season."

“Whatever. It strikes me as odd that the Red Sox are playing hardball with Napoli on the hip issue here.You mean, like it was odd that the Red Sox protected themselves similarly with JD Drew and John Lackey? The latter of whom they have for next to nothing this season because of a contract kicker that protected the Sox if they lost Lackey due to a known injury.

“If they’re not careful he’ll go back to Toronto or on to New York or something and beat their brains out 19 14 times a season.”

You make a valid point. It seems to be the way of The Force. But everyone knows that Napoli isn’t gonna play in enough games to play all 19 against any divisional rival. So please revise to 14 games (Napoli has missed 27% of his teams games the last 4 seasons) and you make strong point a strong one.

Having said that, I have thought all along the Red Sox would be better off with LaRoche despite age and numbers being discussed.

I can think of worse investments than Andy LaRoche for 3 years. Like, say, Napoli without the injury safeguards that the Red Sox seek in the contract language.

Fair comment. Napoli is not a very good fit for the Jays and having spent their budget, probably the most they could offer him is the $3 million currently reserved for Darren Oliver. He could be a fit for the Yankees only if he would take a 1 year contract.

On the other hand, the Rangers are still trying to sign another hitter. I mentioned Baltimore because they lost Reynolds and have otherwise been strangely quiet.

Professorperry- I agree about the poor use of the word “retard”. It’s very insensitive, beyond it’s innacuracy. But then you lost me with your barrage of insults, ultimately blaming Yankee fans for the indiscretion of an obvious Boston red sox fan. His screen name was your first clue. I’m going to refrain from calling you a douchebag, because I don’t want to be like you and because I don’t know you beyond your inarticulate, ignorant post.

I am afraid you mis-read my post, although I was mocking Yankee fans just on general principle. My point was that instead of using the r-word, which I consider hate speech, you can insult people’s intelligence in less dangerously pejorative ways. I was, though, implying Yankee fans weren’t very bright, but in a friendly humorous manner in an attempt to win a Red Sox fan over to my side (of not using the r-word, rather than anything else).

i dnt blame the redsox for wanting to get insurace in the cntract inase he gets hurt
if he has problem with it then go see if another dumb team will offer hiim 39 mill pls this guy not worth it after last yr plus age n injury